Lord Jun San-Heoli was a tall man with piercing eyes and a stern disposition even in the most jovial of times. This was not one of those times. He steepled his fingers before him and listened, tightlipped, as his son once more complained about circumstance and fate.
"It isn't fair, Lord Father! It just isn't. I did not and do not consent to this arrangement. Doesn't that mean anything?" Jun Kkachi glared at his father, challenge shown in his normally docile eyes.
"No. It means nothing."
Kkachi gripped his chopsticks so tightly in his hands that the wooden implements snapped in two. The sharp sound echoed in the lord's private eating chamber and Kkachi winced. He'd never been angry enough to raise his voice at Lord Jun, but then he'd never been put in such a position.
"It looks as if you've awakened something thought dormant in our young prince," Lady Jun Minji said as she silently entered the room from a hidden passage behind a tapestry depicting progenitors of The Jun Family standing protectively before The King on High.
"As you predicted it would, my love."
"As I predicted it would."
"Please don't speak about me as if I am not sitting before you, Lord Parents." Kkachi sighed, poking at his barely touched dinner with a broken chopstick shard. Seared forest horn was his favorite, but he couldn't eat. Not while his life hung in the balance. "I apologize for any disrespect I might have shown, but this is– I can't do this thing."
"You will do this thing, son. Because I require it of you and because you must."
"They are always the same thing with you," Kkachi grumbled under his breath.
"Speak up," Lord Jun snapped.
"I said, anything you request becomes an obligation, Lord Father. There is never any other way with you!"
The expressions on his parent's faces said he'd said too much.
"I am sorr–" he began to apologize, but his mother cut him off with a look.
"You will be silent and listen." Her words were icy, the coldness of a nobleborn woman of Switang. "The King on High has been waging war against the death-worshippers across the Dragon Sea for a decade. Lord Sardon claims that The King is dead and he will sit The High Throne, and has declared war on any lands that will not kiss his ring. The honor of The Jun Family will not allow us to bow to anyone but The King on High himself. So it is only a matter of time before Lord Sardon turns his eyes on Switang.
Lord Chaka of Ngun-Mwar has agreed to an alliance with your Lord Father under the condition of marriage. Your elder brother, Uhu, is off on The King on High's crusade. Your sister," Lady Minji took a deep breath to steady the sudden quiver in her voice, "Durumi was lost to us two summers ago when she rode south to entreat with the goblin king. That leaves you as our only heir and the only child we have to wed to the princess of Ngun-Mwar."
She nodded her head and gestured that he could finally speak.
"I am aware of the political situation our land is in, but this is all wrong. I am the third born." Kkachi jumped to his feet and raised a finger. "First is beholden to The High Throne as warlord or advisor." He raised another. "Second is beholden to Switang and the rule of the people. There is rarely a third and no predestined responsibility falls to them. I wasn't taught statecraft or war. I learned music and art. I... I..."
"Will make a fine husband," Lord Jun finished for him.
Kkachi's shoulders sagged. He knew there was no way to change his parent's minds once they agreed on a specific course, but he'd had to try.
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No Land for Princes(s) (ONC2024 Entry)
AdventureThe last thing Prince Jun Kkachi wants to do is marry a woman he's never met, but his parents care little, for the safety of their nation rests on an alliance. There are worse things than a marriage of convenience, but Kkachi can't think of any. Des...
